TOP STORIES
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WASHINGTON - Britain's ruling Conservatives will unveil a draft bill on Tuesday that could make Prime Minister David Cameron's promise of a referendum on Britain's European Union membership legally binding.
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WASHINGTON - The Associated Press said on Monday the U.S. government secretly seized telephone records of AP offices and reporters for a two-month period in 2012, describing the acts as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations.
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BEIRUT - Syria wants details on a U.S.-Russian proposed peace conference before it decides whether to attend and says the role of President Bashar al-Assad is a decision "only for the Syrian people and the ballot box", a minister said.
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SINGAPORE - Singapore, the world's fourth-biggest offshore financial centre, said on Tuesday it will adopt new measures to make it easier to share information on potential tax evaders with other countries, including the United States.
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BEIJING - A deputy head of China's top planning agency has been sacked for corruption after allegations against him were first posted online, media said on Tuesday, in the government's latest move against pervasive graft.
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HEROR, Iraq - Weary and caked in mud, the first group of Kurdish militants to leave Turkey under a peace plan descended a mountain into Iraq early on Tuesday to be met with embraces from PKK comrades, in a symbolic step towards ending a three-decades-old insurgency.
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WASHINGTON - The FBI last month gave temporary security clearances to scores of U.S. bank executives to brief them on the investigation into the cyber attacks that have repeatedly disrupted online banking websites for most of a year.
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STOCKHOLM/CHICAGO - Major U.S. retailers, including Gap Inc, declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe's two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts.
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OTTAWA - Canada's Liberals regained a seat in the House of Commons on Monday in a race viewed as an early test of the popularity of the party's new leader, Justin Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
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MANILA - Philippine President Benigno Aquino was set on Tuesday to win unprecedented control of the two chambers of Congress after mid-term elections, raising hopes for his reforms to sustain growth, create jobs and make a dent on chronic poverty.
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SITTWE, Myanmar - A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims capsized off western Myanmar with many feared drowned at the start of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of an approaching storm, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.
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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has confirmed four new cases of the SARS-like novel coronavirus in its Eastern Province, state media reported late on Monday, citing the health ministry.
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LAHORE, Pakistan - Nawaz Sharif, poised to become prime minister for a third time after a decisive victory in Pakistan's election, said on Monday the mistrust that has long dogged relations with India must be tackled.
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